US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are all set to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday afternoon. Trump boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland earlier in the day and was en route to the meeting.
Trump spotted with knee pads?
Amid this, journalist Piers Morgan shared a photo of Trump on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “As President @realDonaldTrump lands in Alaska, I wish him the very best of luck in trying to secure an end to the horrendous war in Ukraine. It's refreshing to see a U.S. president who genuinely prefers peace to war.”
The wasn't the message that grabbed attention, but the image accompanying it. The photo showed Trump waving from the door of Air Force One, but with digitally added red knee pads.
Although Morgan quickly deleted the post, screenshots spread rapidly across social media, sparking memes.
One person wrote, “Brilliant. Trump meeting with Putin is hard on the knees."
Another user added, “Trumps gonna be on his knees the entire time.”
{{/usCountry}}Another user added, “Trumps gonna be on his knees the entire time.”
{{/usCountry}}A third person wrote, “Those are the heavy duty knee pads.”
Another commented, “He has on knee pads. Thats as close to athleticism as this man has ever gotten.”
Piers Morgan clarifies
Morgan later clarified the mistake, replying to one screenshot: “I saw the pic on my feed and mistakenly believed it was a live one, and didn’t spot the mocked up kneepads. I couldn’t understand why so many people were laughing and raging about it. Then I realised, deleted it and reposted with another pic. My words remained the same.”
He added in a separate comment “I didn’t see the kneepads on that pic, so just deleted and reposted with a different pic!”
Creator speaks out
The image was photoshopped by the X account @PaulleyTicks, who reacted after the picture went viral: “This is hilarious; Piers Morgan mistakenly posted MY Photoshop of Trump with knee-pads.”
“This is NOT real, MAGAts - it's called PARODY. Thank you," @PaulleyTicks added.